Democratic dominoes

23 March 2021 By John Foley Follow @johnsfoley

The second U.S. mass shooting in a week begs for laws favoring tougher gun checks. Like a $3 trln infrastructure plan, that measure is stalled because of arcane Senate filibuster rules. There are ways to untie the knot, but each step forward could lead to an even bigger breakup.

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Ten people including a police officer were killed in a shooting at a grocery store in the U.S. town of Boulder, Colorado on March 22. Six days earlier, a man fatally shot eight people at three day spas in Atlanta.

The House of Representatives passed two bills on March 11 that would require gun buyers to pass background checks before all purchases of firearms.

Under current law, a sale can proceed if a check cannot be completed within three days, or if the gun sale involves an unlicensed seller, for example through an online transaction or at a gun exhibition.

Bills cannot become law unless passed by the Senate, but for most kinds of legislation, 60 of the 100 senators must agree to move a topic to a vote. Democrats, who effectively have 51 votes, have pledged to reform or abolish this “filibuster” process.

Mitch McConnell, the chief Republican in the Senate, said on March 23 that filibuster reform, which itself requires only 51 votes, would turn the upper house into “a sort of nuclear winter.”

Context News

The House of Representatives passed two bills on March 11 that would require gun buyers to pass background checks before all purchases of firearms.

Mitch McConnell, the chief Republican in the Senate, said on March 23 that filibuster reform, which itself requires only 51 votes, would turn the upper house into “a sort of nuclear winter.”

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